>From: "Don Watson" <dewatson@sunflower.com>
>Sender: owner-announce@isss.org
>
>Greetings!
>
>If systems science is to realistically address the problem of human
>violence, it must be framed as the science of wholes. To
>accomplish this, we must abandon the traditional anthropocentric
>stance, and consistently consider events in the context of Earth's
>whole ecosystem.
>
>This means that scientists must conceptualize the events that we
>consider "tragedies" as elements of the greater dynamic. This
>won't be easy because scientists are notoriously narcissistic and
>tunnel-visioned. After all, scientists named their own species
>"Homo sapiens sapiens" -- "bipedal tool-making primate, wise
>wise." Imagine that!
>
>If humans were truly wise, they would be quite humble about their
>wisdom, realizing that many species--e.g., sharks--have survived
>for hundreds of millions of years because they don't pretend to be
>anything but sharks--and certainly not stewards of nature.
>
>The recurring inter-species violence of humans expresses innate
>characteristics of the human species. Egocentricity, grandiosity,
>tribalism, and territoriality are well-known human characteristics
>that contribute to the violence. Consistently overlooked, however,
>are Gaia's responses to the destabilizations caused by human
>grandiosity.
>
>Long ago, the human species was symbiotic with the other
>species of the biosphere, but it has long since overgrown its
>habitat. Humanity has become an infectious agent causing a
>systemic disease in Gaia--perhaps analogous to a common cold.
>We can expect Gaia to respond to this cold by sneezing. And
>when Gaia sneezes, the infectious agents will suffer, of course.
>
>Gaia's homeostatic mechanisms will seek out the infectious
>agent's own characteristics to use against it. And what
>characteristics are more useful for this purpose than egocentricity,
>grandiosity, tribalism, and territoriality?
>
>Now we can ask, "What can we humans do to increase the
>probability of our survival?"
>
>I've tried to answer this question in my novel, _The Last Miracle_.
>http://www.sunflower.com/~dewatson/miracle.htm
>
>I've also addressed it in an essay, "Is Homo sapiens sapiens a
>Wise Species?"
>http://www.sunflower.com/~dewatson/$homosap.html
>
>Cheers!
>Don Watson
------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ---------------------~-->
Get VeriSign's FREE GUIDE: "Securing Your Web Site for Business." Learn about using SSL for serious online security. Click Here!
http://us.click.yahoo.com/LgMkJD/I56CAA/yigFAA/IHFolB/TM
---------------------------------------------------------------------~->
Community email addresses:
Post message: unrev-II@onelist.com
Subscribe: unrev-II-subscribe@onelist.com
Unsubscribe: unrev-II-unsubscribe@onelist.com
List owner: unrev-II-owner@onelist.com
Shortcut URL to this page:
http://www.onelist.com/community/unrev-II
Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.0.0 : Thu Sep 13 2001 - 11:23:14 PDT